A new look at e.g. Björling and the Cauchy sum theorem (Q2457842): Difference between revisions

The article discusses the contributions of the Swedish mathematician Björling to the theory of uniform convergence of sequences. The story begins with Cauchy's flawed ``proof'' that every pointwise convergent series of continuous functions is itself continuous in his 1821 \textit{Cours d'analyse}. A counterexample was published five years later by Abel. In contemporary terminology, the flaw was Cauchy's failure to distinguish between pointwise and uniform convergence. In 1846 Björling published a proof of Cauchy's sum theorem which attempts to address problems such as Abel's by means of a distinction between `convergence for every value of \(x\)' and `convergence for every \textit{given} value of \(x\)'. Björling's theorem and proof are here translated into English, and their correctness and significance are discussed. In particular, it is discussed whether Cauchy's revised 1853 proof of the theorem may have been inspired by Björling's work.